Keen Eye of Science Detects Noses on Faces

Here’s a news flash:

WHAT is the difference between Jesus Christ and Superman? The content of religions and popular tales is often similar, but only religions have martyrs, according to an analysis of behavioural evolution published this week.

When religious leaders make costly sacrifices for their beliefs, the argument goes, these acts add credibility to their professions of faith and help their beliefs to spread. If, on the other hand, no one is willing to make a significant sacrifice for a belief then observers – even young children – quickly pick up on this and withhold their own commitment. “Nobody takes a day off to worship Superman or gives money to the Superman Foundation,” points out Joseph Henrich, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

It turns out that if you believe in something strongly enough, you are willing to die for it, and this persuades other people that the thing you believe in is worth willing to die for. In other news, science has discovered that the sky is blue, the ocean is wet, and the Pope is Catholic.

What cracks me up about this is the curious way in which, yet again, the Darwinist with the atheistic/materialist hammer sees every problem as an evolutionary nail. What never enters the equation is the content of the faith being transmitted. Mere martyrdom seems to be all it takes.

Of course, they are right to a degree:

[I]f Henrich is right, churches that liberalise their behavioural codes may be sabotaging themselves by reducing their followers’ commitment. This may explain why strict evangelical Christian churches are expanding in the US at the expense of mainstream denominations. “To be a member you’ve got to walk the walk and talk the talk,” says Henrich. “And this transmits deeper faith to the children.”

But merely being rigorous is not enough. Indeed, a multiplicity of long-dead religious movements such as the Donatists or the Shakers demanded much harder things of their followers than the Church does. But, in addition to this, they also believed stuff that was, well, false.

In the final analysis, what the article overlooks is why the apostles were willing to die for their faith in the Risen Christ. Truth claims are always studiously avoided in such analyses.